After 37 Years, the U.S. Arrives to Do Business in Libya
The group includes the defense companies Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems and Raytheon International Inc., as well as major manufacturers like Motorola, Boeing and others producing satellites, medical equipment and pipelines. The return of the Lockerbie bomber may have enraged U.S. officials and millions of Americans, but, says Assistant U.S. Secretary of Commerce Nicole Lamb-Hale, this week's trip is aimed at moving on from that bitter history. "We're certain this marks a new chapter in our relationship and that it will help to strengthen economic and political ties," she said in Tripoli.
U.S. firms have good reason to rush to Libya. The oil-rich nation is sitting atop a giant cash surplus, with foreign reserves of nearly $140 billion. Muammar Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya for four decades and was once described by Ronald Reagan as "the mad dog of the Middle East," has said he intends to spend a lot of that money overhauling his country's creaking infrastructure, which was barely updated through more than two decades of international embargoes. (U.S. sanctions were lifted in 2004 following Libya's abandonment of its nuclear weapons program.)
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1967079,00.html Libya army transport deal frozen after US approval
ASHINGTON – In the months before Libyans revolted and President Barack Obama told leader Moammar Gadhafi to go, the U.S. government was moving to do business with his regime on an increasing scale by quietly approving a $77 million dollar deal to deliver at least 50 refurbished armored troop carriers to the dictator's military.
The old M113 troop transports are typically outfitted with a single machine gun. U.S. officials said the now-scuttled deal would not have added new cannons or other guns because of
strict rules that all defense sales to Libya had to be "non-lethal" defense products....
On the whole, U.S. defense shipments to Libya under the Obama and Bush administrations have been tightly screened in recent years. U.S. sales were dwarfed by a tide of arms sold by European allies. European Union nations approved sales of $470 million in weapons to Gadhafi's military in 2009 alone — a rush of Italian military aircraft, Maltese small arms and British munitions, according to a January EU arms control report.
By comparison, the U.S. peak was $46 million in approved defense sales in the final year of the Bush administration in 2008 — up from $5 million in Libyan defense sales the year before. The $46 million included $1 million in explosives and incendiary agents, and Toner said the State Department approved shipments of blasting cartridges used in oil exploration. Other U.S. officials cited concerns that such explosive agents could be converted to crude battlefield munitions.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110307/ap_on_bi_ge/us_arming_libya That's judging from the AP article saying only non-lethal defense products can be sold.
Now we have this UN embargo and many say it's still illegal, even if they say the rebells are somehow a new entity not bound by it. Looks like it was illegal to arm the rebels before the conflict and it is still illegal now, even using Egypt or Saudi Arabia as a conduit. Egypt seems to posses the M40 so they could send them to Libya.
Arming Libya rebels not allowed by UN resolutions, legal experts warn US
The US is likely to be in breach of the UN security council's arms embargo on Libya if it sends weapons to the rebels, experts in international law have warned.
After Hillary Clinton said it would be legal to send arms to support the uprising, lawyers analysing the terms of the UN's 26 February arms embargo said it would require a change in the terms for it not to breach international law.
"The embargo appears to cover everybody in the conflict which means you can't supply arms to rebels," said Philippe Sands QC, professor of international law at University College London.
His view was backed by other experts in international law who said they could not see how the US could legally justify sending arms into Libya under the current resolutions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/30/arming-libya-rebels-america-warnedThis video showed a lot of weapons even ammo..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DJapluertMAmerica's secret plan to arm Libya's rebels
Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi
Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a "day of rage" from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington's highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago.
Washington's request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later – to America's chagrin – also funded and armed the Taliban.
By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent
...
The Saudis have been told that opponents of Gaddafi need anti-tank rockets and mortars as a first priority to hold off attacks by Gaddafi's armour, and ground-to-air missiles to shoot down his fighter-bombers. Supplies could reach Benghazi within 48 hours but they would need to be delivered to air bases in Libya or to Benghazi airport. If the guerrillas can then go on to the offensive and assault Gaddafi's strongholds in western Libya, the political pressure on America and Nato – not least from Republican members of Congress – to establish a no-fly zone would be reduced.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/americas-secret-plan-to-arm-libyas-rebels-2234227.html Egypt Said to Arm Libya Rebels
CAIRO—Egypt's military has begun shipping arms over the border to Libyan rebels with Washington's knowledge, U.S. and Libyan rebel officials said.
The shipments—mostly small arms such as assault rifles and ammunition—appear to be the first confirmed case of an outside government arming the rebel fighters. Those fighters have been losing ground for days in the face of a steady westward advance by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The Egyptian shipments are the strongest indication to date that some Arab countries are heeding Western calls to take a lead in efforts to intervene on behalf of pro-democracy rebels in their fight against Mr. Gadhafi in Libya. Washington and other Western countries have long voiced frustration with Arab states' unwillingness to help resolve crises in their own region, even as they criticized Western powers for attempting to do so.
...
"Weapons are getting through," said Mr. Souflakis, who says he has regular contacts with Egyptian officials in Cairo and the rebel leadership in Libya. "Americans have given the green light to the Egyptians to help. The Americans don't want to be involved in a direct level, but the Egyptians wouldn't do it if they didn't get the green light."
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704360404576206992835270906.html
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